Nautical Terminator – Animals!

You can’t help but notice how common it is that things related to seafaring are named after animals. In a house you’ll find a table, chair, bed, cupboard, bookcase, rafter, gable, and joist. But aboard a ship in the great age of sail you’d hear the terms gooseneck, crow’s nest, crowfoot, duck, cat, cathead, cat hole, wildcat, catboat, cat-rig, catwalk, cat-o-nine-tails, ratlines, horse, dead horse, Flemish horse, saddle, cow hitch (which is the same thing as a lark’s head), sheepshank, leg-o’-mutton, knee, jackass, camel, horns, bridle, bullnose, bullrope, bull’s eye, cockpit, cockbill, cockboat, fox, dog, doghouse, dog vane, dog watch, and hounds. An old boat can lose its shape and become “hogged,” and “pig-ballast” was molded in forms called “sows.” A “Donkey’s breakfast” was the term the old seamen used to describe their straw mattress. The “manger” is the space immediately inboard of the hawse pipes. Then there’s the monkey fist, monkey jacket, monkey’s blood, monkey bridge, monkey chain, and monkey rail.  

Of course, not everything on a boat has a metaphorical name; we have masts and cleats and lines. Yet, when the old sailors sought a colorful moniker for a piece of gear, they looked to familiar and friendly animals. It is notable that there is a scarcity of sea creatures among these names. We do have a dolphin-striker, and a pelican hook, and a fish-plate, but no shark-widgets; and the crow’s nest is named after a land bird, not a gull or albatross. We also don’t see fearsome animals like wolves and tigers represented.

Humans evolved on land as hunter/gatherers and then farmers, and until this century the majority of the people of the world situated themselves in rural areas, not cities. Before then, most people lived and worked in the countryside, in close, everyday contact with the animal kingdom, both domestic and wild.

But long ago, at least 50,000 years in fact, humans took to the sea. We are challenged to comprehend the courage and imagination required to be the first to sail away from the sight of land, hearth, and home, into that alien environment, removed from everything recognizable. Did the homesick sailor, now in a fearsome, barren wasteland far from the familiar things of life, construct the mental furniture of his surroundings out of his companions—the comforting creatures humans have known forever—in the unconscious effort to place himself at home? Well, maybe he did.

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You can find Tradewinds Members anywhere

Hi Matt and Brandy,

This is Jeff and Marcia Parten from On Three. We were members of the club for several years before we bought our own boat. We also had a slip on Dock D during Covid. We just wanted to drop a note to say we’ve ran into several Tradewinds members and alumni since we’ve left SF. Here is a picture of current Tradewinds members who we ran into in Ensenada Grande in the Sea of Cortez while kayaking around the anchorage 

Best wishes to you guys and thanks again for all you did for us!

Jeff and Marcia

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Tradewinds Member Passage

Tradewinds Burgee

Hey Brandy & Matt!

I hoisted the TWSC burgee on “Rover” (Valiant 42) after we anchored in Taioha’e Bay on Nuku Hiva in the Marquesa Islands after our 26-day passage from San Diego, covering 3,230nm.  We left San Diego on Saturday April 1 (yeah, I know, April Fools Day…)

Rover’s owner-captain is Eric Ahlvin from Seattle (Rover’s home port), and there were three other crew onboard, including me.  At age 73, I learned a lot about passage making and, candidly, about myself as well.  

Eric signed up his “Rover” in Andy Turpin’s Pacific Puddle Jump which made our preparations and arrival smoother.  The three-person passage crew left “Rover” at Nuku Hiva, but with fresh crew Eric will continue to cruise the South Pacific until reaching New Zealand by November.

I wanted both of you to know how excited I was to take my Tradewinds experiences across the Pacific!

All best wishes!                              – Peter

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Coast Guard Safety Inspection Boarding

Hello Tradewinds family!

I had a great sailing day on the Concord yesterday, including my first ever while-still-moving boarding by the US Coast Guard!

I called it in to Tradewinds right after they transferred off and gave a brief summary to Virginia.

I included a copy of the Report of Boarding they gave to me with the checkout sheet.

Below is my summary of the boarding.

– We were on our way back to Tradewinds after lunch at Jack London Square.

– Under motor power, approaching Bay bridge from Oakland Inner Harbor. We were preparing to hoist sails after under crossing the Bay Bridge.

– US Coast Guard came aside us on starboard and said they would be boarding us for a routine safety inspection. 

– I took over helm and followed instructions of speed and heading. I told Liza and anyone below to come up, so they get no surprises.

– (2) Officers boarded, immediately counted life jackets and persons on board. I informed him it was a boat from the Tradewinds Sailing Club in Richmond. 

Boarding

– I went with officer down into cabin as he asked to see various items:

– Boat registration, all fire extinguishers, sound signal (which was already hanging off pedestal) life ring or life sling. I showed him all items without hesitation and to his satisfaction.

– Head, and asked if the head switch was set to correct position. I told him it was set to tank. He asked how many, I told him one tank. He asked if we had a macerator, I told him on this boat yes.

– He asked if diesel or gas engine I said diesel.

– He looked around a bit and said thank you, we’re done here.

– He and the other officer asked for my ID, filed out the Report of Boarding and gave me a copy.

– They proceeded to de-board and left.

Deboarding

– Entire process took about 10 – 15 min.

If I forgot anything g I’ll let you know. Or if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

Quite the experience, but was glad and thankful with the training and checklists given by Tradewinds, I knew all I needed to know about the boat, where, and definitely what was minimum required safety.

Regards,

Ricky C.

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Nautical Terminator – Horse Latitudes (Part 2)

When last I wrote about the Doors’ song, Horse Latitudes, I was skeptical about the practice of jettisoning live horses at sea, or even dead ones, for these reasons: They could be used for food if all provisions had run low; they may revive in a rainstorm if the ship was low on water; they were among many animals transported to America, so it’s puzzling that horses be singled out to be thrown overboard; I can find no cases of insurance claims for this cause; and the so-called Horse Latitudes are closer to Europe than the Doldrums, so provisions would be more likely to run out in the latter calms. Admittedly, the wide acceptance of the “jettisoning” account of the term’s derivation, and its mention in print as early as 1777, means we cannot completely rule it out. Still, more reasonable explanations exist.

One is that the phrase “dead horse month” referred to that time at the beginning of the voyage when the sailor was working off wages paid in advance. The ordinary seaman often spent this money before leaving, so at the beginning of his duties at sea he felt he was working for nothing. A ceremony, described in the Sailor’s Lexicon of 1867, was performed when wages finally began being credited to his account, at an area that came to be associated with the celebration. An effigy of a horse was dragged around the deck, hoisted to the yardarm, then cut away and cast adrift, all attended by much merriment.

Another explanation is that the area between Spain and the Canary Islands was called El Golfo de las Yeguas by the Spanish, meaning “the gulf of the mares.” This gulf is at about 35 degrees north, consistent with the Horse Latitudes. But this region is known for gales, not calms, and in any case, the question of why it is named after horses remains unresolved.

More often than not, the phrases of the sea were created by men who could not read or write. Many evolved for centuries before showing up in literature, which today is our only source of information. Some of you, enamored of the original macabre poetry from the pen of Jim Morrison, will stick with his reading.  But as with many important issues in our sport, sometimes it is best to follow that great nautical sage Captain Ron, and wistfully confess that “nobody knows.”

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Nautical Terminator – Horse Latitudes (Part 1)

In 1967 The Doors released their second album, Strange Days, which included a creepy song called Horse Latitudes. The song alludes to live horses being “jettisoned” from ships and suffering in “mute nostril agony,” presumably to lighten the load or because provisions have run too low to sustain them.  Composer Jim Morrison based the song on seemingly solid nautical sources; the phrase is explained similarly by W. H. Smyth in his 1867 lexicon, in reference to the Azores High. There’s no doubt that the calms associated with this high prolonged the voyage for many ships heading to the New World and that the trip was dangerous. The mortality rate for humans could range to 30%. Still, many authorities question this interpretation of the phrase for the following reasons:

1) The Azores High is much closer to Europe than the equatorial calms, making the Doldrums an even more likely area for cargo to be thrown overboard. Why do we not locate the practice there?

2) A ship’s consignment was documented in the manifest. Horses were not incidental items that could be glossed over when they failed to materialize at their destination, but highly valued ones. Their absence would have required a thorough accounting to the ship’s insurers from the captain, who took responsibility for their safe transport. Yet as far as I can determine, no record of an insurance claim for this type of loss has been documented, while we have records of other losses due to storms.

3) Horses were not the only animals transported. Cows, pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, and oxen were also among the animals needed to be supplied to America, which lacked them. Why are only horses singled out in this phrase?

4) Even if the ship’s water stores needed to be rationed, there remained the potential for rain, which could come at any time. Why jettison live animals, while there was still hope that they could be revived with fresh water from a rainstorm?

5) However unappealing it may be to modern Americans, horsemeat is still consumed in Europe and would have been much better fare than the salted, often rotten meat which was commonly provided. With supplies running low, would the captain order this important food source thrown overboard?

     As common as Morrison’s interpretation of this phrase is, logic cries out for another explanation. We’ll see if we can come up with one next time.

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Nautical Terminator – Doldrums

Ever feel like you’re “in the doldrums”— where everything seems bleak and colorless, and there’s nothing you can think of that sounds like fun? Yeah, me neither.

          The word comes from the old English dol meaning dull. Appended to this is the suffix drum, which is believed to have been borrowed from tantrum. As tantrums are fits of anger, doldrums are fits of dreariness. The term was used in this form by the nineteenth century, so in 1824 when Lord Byron referred to a ship as being “in the doldrums” in “light and baffling” winds, he was noting the ship’s forlorn behavior, not its location. 

          The first time the doldrums were connected to a specific place in the ocean was in The Physical Geography of the Sea, 1855, by the estimable Matthew Maury, whose detailed research formed the foundation of pilot charts: “The ‘equatorial doldrums’ is another of these calm places… a region of calms and baffling winds.” But this seems to have been the result of a misconception on the part of someone (not Maury) who, when told a ship was “in the doldrums,” thought this was a geographical area.

          The doldrums are now the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a title that is infinitely less poetic than its predecessor. The ITCZ consists of a band of light wind north of the equator that varies in latitude and width according to the season and any old whim that occurs to it. Many try to avoid it when sailing, and marine forecasters will give you a good guess about just where to cross it at its narrowest. Of course, by the time you sail to that spot, it will be the widest.

          I’m going to buck the crowd and put in a word for the doldrums. The wind has ceased, and you’re alone in a vast, primordial wilderness far from the chatter of civilization. It wasn’t easy getting here. The ocean is quietly resting, though you sense the uncanny power of her languid undulations born of distant, violent storms. In this desolate and dreamlike domain, you can read, contemplate, and swim in perfect serenity and solitude. Your cup and plate sit calmly on the table instead of unsociably flinging themselves to the cabin sole. The sunset beams across the anvil tops of thunderheads a hundred miles away. Soon enough, you’ll be in a city with all the normal folks. What’s the hurry?

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Nautical Terminator – Pesky Sailing Terms

Mastering all those sailing terms can be troublesome. It’s like learning a silly secret language that an exclusive club made up just to befuddle outsiders, or at least that’s what I like about it. But sometimes it seems as though the sailing wizards have just gone too far. What follows are mariners’ words that have two or more meanings with little or nothing in common. Why? Just because.

Veer (vb.): (1) Of the wind, to turn clockwise, or when steering, to change course, often by spacing out; (2) To let out anchor rode, particularly when you believe that using fancy words will disguise the fact that you have no idea what you’re doing.

Bight (n.): (1) The middle of a line, where you have to learn special ways to tie knots like clove hitches and bowlines that you thought you already knew; (2) A concave stretch of shoreline, not deep enough to have its own name like those haughty coves and bays.

Foot (vb.): (1) To sail slightly further off the wind than a close-hauled course to increase speed; (n.) (2) The bottom edge of a sail; (3) The thing at the end of your leg, useful for many seamanlike tasks like kicking the windlass to get it started.

Fetch (vb.): (1) To sail to a point upwind without having to tack; (2) To “fetch up” means to come to a stop, usually on a reef (see below); (n.) (3) The distance over the water that a particular wind blows, generating waves. I’m not even counting what dogs do.

Reef (n.): A shallow shelf of rock or coral that sooner or later you’re going to hit; (2) The bottom part of the sail taken in when shortening down, although on a square sail this is the top of the sail, of course.

Point (vb.): (1) To taper the end of a rope; (2) To sail close to the wind, as in “she points well”; (n.) (3) Any one of several courses relative to the wind, as in “point of sail,”; (4) An area of land projecting from the coastline; (5) A 32nd part of the compass card equivalent to 11 degrees, 15 minutes. Are these five different things, or what? Couldn’t we have five different words?

And the winner is:

Westerly (adj.):(1) Of wind, blowing from the west; but (2) Of current, setting towards the west.

          You’ve got to be kidding. I’m just sayin’.

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Estimating Time Of Arrival

           One of the most common calculations you make when cruising, whether it’s a sail on the Bay or island hopping in Greece, is figuring when you’re going to get where you’re going. It’s easy enough to estimate time of arrival when you are “fetching” your destination, which is sailing jargon for sailing directly there rather than tacking. Distance divided by speed equals time. But suppose you want to figure out how long it takes to sail to San Francisco from Richmond. With the prevailing summer wind, it’s going to be a beat and let’s say your boat does 6 knots through the water, but not in a direct line because you have to tack. The “ETE” or estimated time enroute, and “VMG” or velocity made good aren’t so straightforward, and these are what you need to know to figure “ETA,” or estimated time of arrival. You can figure a rough estimate, though, without knowing trigonometry or having a whole cabal of nerds running arcane computer programs for Larry Ellison.
                What you’ve got when your destination is directly upwind is, theoretically, an isosceles right triangle (iso=equal, skelos=leg) where the hypotenuse represents the distance to your destination and the legs represent your tacks. So x + x is the distance you’ll have to sail to get from F to D via point E:

            
                Remembering that geometry class in high school, a squared + b squared = c squared, but since the legs are the same, the hypotenuse is equal to either side times the square root of two. (In this theoretical treatment it doesn’t matter whether it’s ten tacks or one.) So if you divide the hypotenuse, which is in this case the distance from the end of Potrero Reach (F) to the City (D), about 5.5 nautical miles, by the square root of two (≈1.41), you’ll have the length of one tack, and then multiply by two for the two tacks, you will have the distance you need to sail to get there. This turns out to be a little less than 8 nm. Let’s assume a boat speed of 6 knots with a steady breeze. If you divide that distance by your six knots of speed, you’ll have your time enroute or ETE, about 1.3 hours. Divide the distance from F to D by the ETE, 5.5/1.3, and you’ll have your velocity made good or VMG, a little more than 4 knots. And add the ETE to the present time, and you’ll know if you’ll be arriving in time to meet Betty and Sam.  
                Because that calculation is neglecting leeway, however, the distance is actually a little more than that so your ETE is longer and your VMG is less. So forget all that square root stuff. It turns out that just multiplying the distance from F to D by 1.5 is going to give a close enough estimate of the actual distance you’ll have to sail, assuming the destination is dead to windward, for us regular old sailors. Correspondingly, your VMG is 2/3 of your boat speed through the water. If it isn’t dead to windward, sail the long leg first, and the multiplier will be less than 1.5, but never less than 1. It’s not so hard. So put those high school trig and geometry books back on the shelf next to your vinyl Spice Girl albums.
                But wait. We also have to figure current, as the above assumes slack water. This can get a bit cumbersome but let’s see if we can, again, find a shortcut. Have a look at the current charts at the back of your tide book. Turn to the max ebb chart on p. 59. You’ll see 1.4 knots helping you along, then a little over 2 knots of current to the right. This is on an average day at maximum current. To find what the figure is on a strong day, go to the chart on p. 50 and you’ll see the multiplier is 1.5. This means that at max ebb on a strong day, you’ll get 1.4 x 1.5, or a little over 2 knots of help halfway there, and then let’s say 2.4 x 1.5 or about 3.5 knots of being set to the right, which also helps. Averaging those, you’ll have a bit less than three knots in your favor for the whole trip. When we add this to the six knots your boat does over the water, we get a speed over the water of nearly nine knots on a day with a strong ebb. The distance sailed is the same 8 miles, so now the trip will take just less than an hour at max ebb on a strong day. [There is some oversimplification going on here, but…let’s just forget about that.]
                On a flood where the current is adverse, consult the chart on p. 53, and again adjusting by the chart on p. 50, we’ll multiply by 1.5 for a strong day. We get 1.5 knots of adverse current and then a little less than 2 setting us to the left, opposite of where we want. (The flood difference is smaller than the ebb difference because on average the ebb is stronger than the flood. A subject for another day.) Averaging the 2 with the 1.5, we can subtract 1.7 knots from our boat speed, bringing it to about 4.3 knots. The distance through the water is the same 8 miles, so it will take a little less than 2 hours to get there. Again, this is max flood on a strong day.
                The end result is we get a range of ETE from just under one hour with a strong ebb, which yields a VMG of about 6 knots; one hour, 20 minutes at slack for a VMG of just over 4 knots; and a little under 2 hours against a strong flood for a VMG of about 2.8 knots. Try this for any destination on the Bay. If any of you decide to actually do this, please report your results back for all of us to benefit. There’s nothing like empirical validation.
                OK, I admit, that was a bit complicated. But you only have to figure this out once, based on the speed of your boat, and you’ll know at a glance how to estimate your ETE to the city given the state of wind and current. All of this assumes constant wind and consistent boat handling, so your figures may vary. Not that you really care, because if you’re sailing, no matter how long it takes to get to your destination, you’ve already arrived.


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Sailing Destinations: Richardson Bay

Beautiful Richardson Bay was named after a man named William Richardson whom came to the area as a second mate aboard a Brittish Whaling ship named Orion in 1822. After staying out all night at a party in the Presidio in San Francisco against the orders of his captain, it was a mutual decision for him to leave the ship. He eventually won a petition for a rancho called “Rancho Sauselito”. Sausalito is the spanish word for “small willow grove”and these headlands across the Golden Gate from the Presidio were full of freshwater springs and the section Richardson requested had a creek. Likely the place we today call, Coyote Creek.

Richardson then brilliantly established a watering station for incoming vessels with his natural supply but did later abandon this endeavor for something more in his wheel house. Surveying land and water, something he did multiple times throughout his life. He was the first to chart San Francisco Bay, he was a translator, helped layout towns such as Sonoma and San Diego and he used his personal boat to transport people and supplies up to Sacramento during the gold rush. He also built the first 2 story wood framed house in the Presidio that looked out at incoming vessels so he could greet them and offer them any goods they may be needing. Richardson was named Port Captain due to his seafaring abilities, overseeing maritime commerce in the bay and often times personally piloting arriving ships. Making him the first of what we now call Bay Pilots. You can now see why his name was given to one of the most beautiful parts of our bay, what we call Richardson Bay.

Before I go any further I want to say, this post includes a cove within the bay that is not technically in Richardson Bay. I tried to break this series of posts up into general areas, sometimes needing to squeeze an area into a box it didn’t quite fit into. I have laid this post out by starting on the most western area and moving up and around the bay ending in the most eastern corner.

This series is meant to serve as a guide to help day and weekend sailors find new and interesting things they can do on board Tradewinds Sailing School and Club boats. If I include a place or a thing that isn’t allowed in our club, I will mention it explicitly so our members know but this post can still be used by independent boat owners and visitors from out of town.

Welcome to Richardson Bay!!

 A shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay

Below is a map of the area we are talking about. You will find pins dropped for each place mentioned so you can orient yourself with where each place is as I go along. You can interact with this map better by clicking on the link below it.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1l_wTtrWX-u6-ptEHzVOQP0KllvVBxvs&usp=sharing

Horseshoe Cove (or Bay)

The marina with the most controversial name (everyone swears it’s Cove but the charts all say Bay) but the most beautiful views in the Bay! This marina is the closest marina to the Gate with the best views of Golden Gate Bridge right from your anchorage or guest dock and full views of San Francisco, assuming you are there on a clear day or night which is advised. If you do happen to have the fog roll in before you get into the cove you may want to reconsider. It will be difficult to navigate in and most of the beauty and wonder will be hiding behind our favorite Bay Area friend, Karl the fog. If you are going on a clear day however, you are in LUCK. Make sure to enter the cove down the middle of the entrance and keep an eye out, you have a fishing area to your port and to your starboard you have a shallow area near the breakwater. Check your tides and currents as well before you plan to visit this location. It is best to enter at slack tide or on a gentle ebb or flood as the currents are strongest near this part of the bridge and you can find yourself drifting out of the gate.

Anchorage:

This Harbor has an average depth of 8′ so watch those negative tides! The area closer towards the bridge side of the cove should be kept clear as the coast guard may enter at any time and can take up that whole side. There is a small no wake zone marker in the middle but 2 boats can fit in here comfortably or more if rafted up. TRADEWINDS DISCLAIMER: It is against club rules to raft up at any time. The sea floor in this harbor is mostly silt. Be sure to test your anchor well before resting to be sure you are holding. Be advised, some local sailors have said they would not anchor here as there is debris on the seafloor that your anchor could get tangled up in. If you are anchoring here you could tie a trip line to your anchor to help you if this becomes a problem.

Guest Dock:
Travis Marina: (415)332-2319
No reservations.
$1/foot for overnight stays
40′ boat is max
End of dock is 8′ at low tide, progressively getting more shallow towards land
Restaurant and Bar at marina – Best burger on the bay!
On Friday’s and Saturday’s be sure to call before trying to visit the bar as they sometimes have private events.

Access to:
Restrooms and showers
Presideo Yacht Club – a public yacht club
Hikes to beautiful sights
Fishing off of pier
1/2 mile walk to Cavallo Point Restaurant
1/4 mile walk to Bay Area Discovery Museum and Bean Sprouts Cafe (Coffee and food geared towards children)

Sausalito Yacht Club (Club members only)

This club is members only, however, if you are a member of a yacht club you can use your reciprocal priveledges to visit this area. I recommend visiting during one of their live music events. You can view their events page here. If you decide to visit on a day they are not having an event you can take advantage of the two hours on the guest dock, or if you have a dinghy, stand up paddle board, kayak, etc… you can use it to get to shore from here. Once on land you have 3 of the top 10 water front restaurants that are just south of the yacht club. The Trident, Scoma’s of Sausalito and Barrel House. Of course you could also have a good meal right here at Sausalito Yacht Club Restaurant.

Information below is directly from the Sausalito Yacht Club website.

Dock Rules
Boat Captain is responsible for securing his/her yacht – Please utilize the most upwind available space maximizing room for other vessels.

  1. All visiting Yacht Club vessels should fly their respective yacht club burgee.
  2. Visitors from reciprocal Yacht Clubs must check in with the Officer on Deck or Club Steward upon arriving.
  3. Maximum stay 2 hours. (During special events, less time may be allowed)
  4. No overnight tie-up at the dock. Members are requested to use the mooring balls when tying-up overnight.
    NOTE: Our dock experiences significant surge and current. Boaters should be aware of this and plan their visit and dock lines accordingly.

Use of the SYC Mooring Field
The SYC mooring field is for members and guests who have registered with our Port Captain, Officer of the Day or General Manager. No boat shall be moored for more than 72 hours. Call 415-332-7400.

Notice: There are a few boats anchored between two locations and other random spots along the side of Richardson Bay – keep in mind this areas are very shallow and not recommended for overnight anchoring. You will likely find yourself stuck for possibly a few days.

Sausalito Yacht Harbor

Sausalito Yacht Harbor is a small marina with monthly slips that rarely become available. The reviews online all state this is a beautiful spot if you can get one. There are no guest docks available for use.

Restaurants between here and the next marina are:
Seafood Peddler (415)332-1492
Salito Crab House (415)331-3226

These are easily walked to from neighboring marinas with guest docks.

Pelican Harbour

Pelican Harbor is another small marina. Although no guest dock or transient slips available, it seems like a very nice marina to stay in by month. Below is a few more of the great restaurants you can visit while staying in a nearby marina that does have a guest dock.

Restaurants between here and the next marina are:
Bar Bocce (415)331-0555
Joinery Bearhall (415)766-8999

Another sight to see between this marina and the next is the Floating Taj Mahal. It is a sight you can’t miss! Snag a picture as you are passing by but if you happen to get onto the docks please do not try to approach or look in as someone does live in this beautiful floating home.

Sausalito Cruising Club

The Sausalito Cruising Club is such an interesting place that I have been researching to try and get accurate information about and I think I finally figured it out. Although not actually called a yacht club this club is very similar to what we know of as yacht clubs. The Cruising Club is a member of the Pacific Inter-Yacht Club Association. They even have reciprocal rights with many yacht clubs on the West Coast, Hawaii, and throughout the world. 

This club started during World War II by service men who were looking for a place to decompress. The clubhouse is a surplus World War Two munitions barge which is a detail that makes me want to jump on a boat and use my own reciprocal yacht club privileges to go check it out. To the side of the building are a bunch of stand up paddle boards and kayaks which look like they are available for club use. Before you visit the Sausalito Cruising Club I recommend shooting them an email at info@sausalitocruisingclub.org to make sure the facilities are available during the time you plan to visit.

Galilee Harbor

Galilee Harbor is once again a marina we wont have access to but it’s home to 38 floating households that is full of creative residents. Keep an eye out for events in this marina you could find your new favorite piece of livingroom art, pottery, t-shirt, etc! It looks like they haven’t updated their website with events for 2023 but you can find the page by clicking HERE!

Schoonmaker Point Marina
Guest Dock

Phone: 415.331.5550   

A relatively new, full-service marina. Side-ties can handle yachts up to 220 feet long. Guest slips often available by prior arrangement(varify guest dock space they want you to pull up to). Café at marina. Sandy beach that can be used to land or launch a dinghy, stand up paddle board or kayak. You can also swim in this calm area and rent a kayak if you don’t have your own. If you are visiting by car, there are free carts you can borrow to transport your stuff from the car to the beach.

Restaurants in this area are:
Le Garage (415)332-5625
New Saylor’s Restaurant and Bar (415)332-1512

Other things to do near this marina:

Bay Model Visitors Center (415) 289-3007

New Old School E-Bikes (415)324-7039
You can get 15% off bike rentals when you mention Tradewinds and this blog post.
Comes with bike lock and phone holder.

Bluewater Yacht Harbor

Nightly guest dock and monthly dry storage docking

Phone: (415)289-0135

Not sure if you are annoyed that this list is full of marinas that do not have public access but this is a marina I was sure was going to be that and then I found a singular line written on their website that set me straight. “There are also side ties up to 60’ available for daily or other short term use”. If looking for somewhere new to tie up and stay the night at, I recommend giving this marina a call. If looking for somewhere to store some smaller water toys, this also might be your spot. They advertise monthly stand up paddle board, canoe and kayak dry dock storage.

Liberty Ship Marina

The most difficult marina in Sausalito to find any information on at all. It is home to the beautiful Matthew Turner, a Liberty Ship that offers bay tours and is seen almost every weekend and in the evenings sailing with its big square sails on display. You can visit the marina to take a look a little closer at the ship but please do not climb aboard unless it is open for tour. More info coming soon about this marina.

Marina Plaza Harbor

Another marina that is website-less and has little information. However, this marina does offer daily guest docking. More information coming as I get the chance to visit or call this marina. If you happen to get ahold of anyone before I have updated this post, please email the office with the information!

Clipper Yacht Harbor
Guest Dock verified!

This is a family owned full service marina open to the public. You must call to reserve your guest dock in advance and they will require you to send them boat documentation and proof of insurance (Tradewinds is happy to provide anytime a marina asks for this just send us an email and we will send you so you can provide). You can find a lot to do is this part of sausalito including more restaurants and shopping. This is also a great place to stay while you go walk around the cool Waldo Point Marina talked about next.

Recommended restaurants in area:
Fish. (415)331-3474

Waldo Point Harbor

Waldo Point Harbor is an adorable community of floating homes that is happy to have people walking around soaking up the creative ways they have decorated their community. There is no guest dock and they do not appreciate people looking in their windows or taking pictures but have a walk around and imagine living in such a beautiful and interesting place!

Richardson Bay Marina

Last but not least is Richardson Bay Marina. Tucked in the very northern corner past Waldo Point Harbor, is this awesome marina open to the public but not offering any guest slips. They do have monthly slips and possibly liveaboard slips, although it is unlikely that any slips become available in our lifetimes!

Things to do in the area:
Sea Plane Adventures

Strawberry Lagoon and Araburo Island

As we make our way now around to the other side of the Bay you will see Strawberry Lagoon and Araburo Island. This area is very shallow and I do not recommend trying to visit it on a sailboat. However, if you happen to be visiting the area in anything with a much more shallow draft, it is quite an interesting place. The island and lagoon you see in the picture is home to a bird sanctuary and just outside of the island is an Eel Grass experiment that SF State University has been doing. Definitely something cool to check out.

Our very own Tony Johnson gave us a great secret entrance you can see in the next image.


Cone Rock Anchorage

If you are a Tradewinds Student and you have taken our ASA 104 Bareboat Cruising Class, there is a high chance you have spent the night near cone rock at anchor. It is most of our instructors favorite places to take their students to experience to beautiful views as well as this usually protected anchorage. Just be careful, the wind doesn’t always come from the same place and on an evening with a west wind, you are on a lee shore.

The depth at this anchoring is pretty steadily, 8-11′ at zero tide between the cone rock marker and land to the edge of raccoon strait. If you are on one of our deeper draft boats, like the First 40 Child’s Play we have in our fleet, on a negative tide you can find yourself sitting in the mud. Most of our boats though are about 6′ draft and you will be perfectly afloat for your evening on the hook.

In summary…

Richardson Bay and Horseshoe Cove are beautiful areas that are not to be missed if you are sailing in San Francisco Bay. We owe this priveledge to a man named David Steinhardt who fought against this area of water being filled in during the 1950’s. Apparently there was a plan to fill it in so they could build homes and install roads but Steinhardt stopped the process and convinced his neighbors to also take a stand against the idea which preserved the bay of water for all of us to enjoy over the past 70 years and counting.

Whether you are day sailing and looking for somewhere to cruise around/stop for lunch or staying the night and looking for something a little more special to do, like renting an ebike and exploring part of your day on land checking out the history of the marin headlands, put this area on your list immediately!!


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